The Government will set out details of a major support package for businesses, as they attempt to ease the financial hit of soaring energy bills.

The package is set to run to tens of billions of pounds and comes amid heightened calls from firms for certainty over electricity and gas costs to enable them to plan.

Ministers have said that firms, schools, hospitals, charities and other non-domestic consumers will be covered by the scheme following warnings of the devastating impact on the economy if they fail to act.

The Government has already announced that bills for an average household in England, Scotland and Wales will be capped at £2,500 from October 1 – but while businesses have been promised equivalent support, they have been waiting for details as officials have been drawing up a bespoke scheme.

Hereford Times: PAPA (Image: PA)

The wholesale cost of gas and electricity will be slashed for companies under a scheme which will run for six months starting in October.

The Government will cap the wholesale price paid by non-domestic customers, which include schools and charities.

The “supported wholesale price” is expected to be £211 per megawatt hour (MWh) for electricity and £75 per MWh for gas.

This is around half the expected wholesale price on the open market, and equivalent to the cap on household energy bills that will be set this October and run for two years.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said: “We have stepped in to stop businesses collapsing, protect jobs and limit inflation.

“And with our plans to boost home-grown energy supply, we will bring security to the sector, growth to the economy and secure a better deal for consumers.”

Prime Minister Liz Truss said shops and pubs will benefit from support with their energy bills beyond the initial six-month scope of the scheme.

She said: “We know that businesses are very concerned about the level of their energy bills.

“That’s why we are putting in place a scheme for business that will be equivalent to the scheme for households to make sure that businesses are able to get through the winter.

“We’re going to review it after six months. We’ll make sure that the most vulnerable businesses like pubs, like shops, continue to be supported after that.”

She said the initial scheme “will apply from the first of October to make sure businesses have that security through the winter”.

The savings will be first seen in October bills, which are typically received in November.